Tuesday, January 19, 2010

TTT 1/19/10 & Winner!


Before I say anything else, I want to note the passing of Mary Konior. While Mary hasn't contributed anything new for many years, her books have been a source of inspiration for all of us and will continue to be long after most of us are forgotten. I checked my blog and found 209 entries about her patterns. Some are probably referencing more than one statement in a single post but in some posts, I know there were several patterns by her and in some cases, I might not have mentioned her at all. That's about 20% of my posts so far. I think that's a lot and she deserves the credit for every single one of them. I love her books. The edging for my daughter-in-law's bridal hanky came from one of those books. It's not the most recent thing I've tatted from her but one of the biggest projects.

So last night I took a little time to empty some shuttles and tat another of my favorites from her books. This one is in a section from Visual Tatting called "Fragments and Doodles". I love this rose and have framed many of them alone. It's perfect for emptying a shuttle and it's feminine and delicate and all that tatting is. Her patterns are not complicated and to me, that is the genius of it. She created so very many edgings, doilies, collars and other pieces that are beautiful without a single split ring or split chain or self closing mock ring. Her book on Visual Tatting made diagrams almost a standard in tatting. In fact, the only reason I bought that book was to learn how to tat from a diagram. It remains my most referenced book.

I said in the last post that I would show you the miniature fansticks I bought from Ann Keller during my first visit to Ireland in 2000. My sister and I took the train from Tara station to the other side of Dublin where Ann had her studio. She met us at the station and drove us to her studio, telling us lots about the local history along the way. At the time, Ann was the ONLY tatter I was able to find. Wish I'd known about Pamela (Tatskool) then as I would have made a special trip to meet her too. Since Ireland is known for lace, I was totally flabbergasted that it wasn't brimming with tatters! Where are they? But tatting is not the lace Ireland is known for. I finally figured that out. LOL!

As you can see, the fansticks are quite small, shorter even than my shuttle. Ann painted the outside sticks on both the outside and inside. I also bought four shuttles from her and picked out a scene on each side for her to paint. She painted them and then sent them to me after I'd returned.

Here's a scan showing the fan closed.


This one shows you a close up of the outer side of the fanstick. I also bought some tatting patterns from Ann, including one to make the lace for this size fanstick. They are by someone else - and not really easy for me to look up right now, but I think that's going to have to go on my "to-do" list for this year. If you would like to know more about Ann or perhaps even order from her, check out her website here.

Another thing I've uncovered in all my cleaning is tea stamps! I ordered the set on the left from someone at work and I won the set on the right during a silent auction in Hector a few years ago. Yea.....another thing to put to use!

And now...drumroll.....the winner of the tea cozy pattern...is......commenter #2 from the random number generator which is Katie! Katie, I left a message on your blog to send me your mailing address at ginab6 at yahoo dot com. You should have it by the next Tatting Tea Tuesday!

8 comments:

  1. Congratulations to Katie for her wonderful tea cozy win!

    Gina, thank you for this post. Love the roses! I didn't know Mary (may she rest in peace) had included a rose pattern in that book. Gotta to try it!

    And I LOVE tea stamps, so thanks for sharing yours.

    I think Tea and Roses will be my focus for Tatting Tea Tuesday today. Thank you for the inspiration.

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  2. Hi Gina,

    Just saw your post on Mary's rose buds. Thanks for your comment. I know what you mean. I just discovered Mary Konior's patterns last year from you and other tatters who blog.

    Your fansticks are lovely. I make my own picot gauge with a recycled plastic postcard.

    Congrats to Katie. Sorry I missed you giveaway, would have loved to join in.

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  3. Wow, that little fan foundation is tiny and so cute! I am so envious that you've been able to go to Ireland! I would love to meet up with Pamela, too! I would like to give her a big hug, she's a dear tatting friend to many!

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  4. This was a very special blog entry. The fan sticks are just beautiful. May we have a link to the artist? It may be there; but I can't find it ~ :>)

    Thank you too, for speaking of Mary on your blog. I was fortunate to get all of her books before they became so popular that they became really hard to find. I'm glad "Visual Patterns" is still accessible to new tatters; I suspect that book taught a lot of us about visual patterns.

    Your blog looked especially lovely today…Every time I see something Tea-related, I think of you!

    Wow, you have been doing a lot of cleaning out! I wish I could DO that; or had a helper to do the heavier part. May God give you, "Strength as your day."

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  5. Just love the cute little fan sticks!! And that was a great tribute to Mary!!! Aslo just love the Tea Stamps.

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  6. Hi Gina!
    This is a nice tribute to Mary Konior. I only have her Visual Patterns book, but it was groundbreaking - I'm so glad I bought it when it first came out. I'd like to know more about her tatting history.

    You're way ahead of me in your downsizing project. I admire your forging ahead, even with a job and so many other things going on in your busy life. I'm retired and have time on my hands, but I've lost the ambition for this project for the time being. I like the idea of photographing items before giving them away. I'm also finding things I had forgotten about, and accepting the fact that I am NOT going to do some things I always thought I'd have time for - when Time stretched out ahead.

    I just wanted to chime in and tell you how much I enjoy reading your blog. Also, I appreciate your listing of so many tatting blogs on your sidebar. I'm amazed how you've found them all!

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  7. I'm glad my post on Mary Konior felt good to so many of you. I would have liked to have met her myself.

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  8. Fan sticks are wonderful!

    Love the way you have shown Mary Konior's rose - lovely tribute post.

    ♥Fox : )

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